CLEVELAND – Green paper is gaining popularity, and we’re not talking U.S. currency.

We mean paper that’s environmentally friendly, derived from trees that are harvested responsibly, not yanked from a sensitive rainforest or slashed in wide swaths across the land.

People are becoming hip to the ravages of deforestation: the lost wildlife habitat, the fouled streams, the increase in greenhouse gases. And they don’t want to be part of the problem.

So, they are starting to ask for paper products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, an international organization based in Bonn, Germany, that has set standards for how trees should be taken.

The standards serve to protect forests and their critical role in the ecosystem while allowing logging communities and wood-dependent industries to make a living.

Recently, in Ohio, the St. Ives printing plant in Cuyahoga Heights and Oliver Printing in Twinsburg became certified to FSC standards, which means they can use a “checkmark tree” logo to designate that specific paper came from responsibly managed forests.

A third printer, Great Lakes Integrated in Cleveland, expects to become FSC-certified this month.

“Strategically, we’re looking out and saying, the customers are going to want this,” said Troy Eckstine, who manages the FSC program at the local St. Ives plant.

With such a tag, consumers can be assured their catalogs and brochures are produced with responsible forest management in mind. Perhaps more important, they can let their customers know.

It’s what drove local faucet-maker Moen Inc. to ask St. Ives to print catalogs on FSC-certified paper. As a supplier to the construction industry, which is becoming increasingly green, it’s important that Moen demonstrate it’s doing its part.

“This issue of sustainability is extremely important in our marketplace,” said Tom Liebhardt, director of marketing services for Moen. St. Ives’ first job using the FSC logo was on a Moen promotional stuffer printed last week.

FSC paper isn’t necessarily more expensive, Eckstine, it just depends on the grade and the availability.

In some cases, local printers have already been using paper that meets FSC standards, but only after getting certified themselves can they apply the label on finished products.

While forests receive one kind of certification, all those who bring the wood to market receive a chain-of-custody certification to demonstrate they can verify responsible handling.

Regular audits are conducted to make sure standards are being met.

Up until about three years ago, certification by the Forest Stewardship Council was kind of a niche label, said Liza Murphy of the Rainforest Alliance, which provides FSC certification globally. But since then, the number of certified forests has increased.

Today, more than 900 forest management certificates have been issued covering 240 million acres worldwide. More than 5,000 chain-of-custody certificates also have been awarded. About 5 percent to 6 percent of all working forests in the United States are FSC-certified, Murphy said.

Most paper certified to FSC standards combines recycled paper with wood fiber. A percentage of that wood must come from forests that meet strict FSC standards, while the rest must meet a lesser standard designed to guard against the most egregious logging abuses.

Paper cannot be recycled indefinitely, Murphy said, which means a certain amount of virgin wood is necessary to make up the difference.

Plus, it pays to make forests economical so they won’t be converted to some other use, such as a parking lot or a mall, which would mean wiping out all the carbon-absorbing, erosion-preventing, habitat-sheltering trees.

A major contributor to global warming is deforestation. Trees capture carbon in the atmosphere and retain it until they are burned or decompose.

It’s not all about the environment, however. It’s also about saving jobs. By preserving forests, communities can continue to rely on logging for their livelihoods.

Across Canada, several hundred communities depend on forestry, said Chris McDonell, manager of environmental and aboriginal relations for Tembec, which manages 30 million acres of provincial forest in Canada and has manufacturing plants in Canada, France and Louisiana. Most of the acreage meets FSC standards.

Many techniques are used to properly manage a forest. For example, trees should be selectively cut to preserve a variety of ages. Buffers should be left around streams and lakes to prevent erosion. And logging roads should be made as short as possible.

At Tembec, McDonell said, at least 10 trees per acre are left standing.

While the Forest Stewardship Council is not the only organization that monitors forest management, it has the endorsement of such groups as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund.

“You’re going to find that FSC has the broadest and deepest support in the environmental community,” Murphy said.